E-mail: Rebecca.Brannon@utah.edu
Education
- PhD Engineering Mechanics. University of Wisconsin, Madison, Dec. 1992. GPA 4.0/4.0. Full fellowship.
- Advisor: Dr. Walter S. Drugan.
- Graduate dissertation focused on full spectral analysis of non-self-adjoint plasticity acoustic tensors, and on thermodynamic restrictions for dynamically propagating discontinuity surfaces in nonclassical elastic-plastic solids with the applications to steady-state plane-strain crack growth.
- M.S. Engineering Mechanics. University of Wisconsin, Madison, May 1988. GPA 3.9/4.0
- B.S. Mechanical Engineering. University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, May 1987. 3.6/4.0.
- Early admission, University of Alabama, Birmingham, 1981, math program.
Research Interests
- Accuracy/stability/efficiency of plasticity models
- Damage and failure (stability analysis, statistical uncertainty, size effects, and mesh-dependence)
- Poroelasticity and poroplasticity
- Penetration and perforation
- Rock mechanics
- Shock-induced tunnel collapse
- Shock-induced depolarization of ferroelectrics
- Deformation-induced anisotropy
- Effect of anisotropy on boundary conditions and solvers in finite-element methods
- Homogenized models for composites
- Continuum kinematics for large distortions with applications in biomechanics of calluses
- Kinematics of large rotations
- Statistical crack mechanics
- Curvilinear and Cartesian tensor analysis
- Finite-difference/finite-element/particle-method transient dynamics
- Particle methods for simulating large deformation and/or complicated geometries
- Efficient point sampling methods for higher dimensional spaces
- Dynamic strength modeling
- Visualization of tensor fields
- Tools for verification and validation of constitutive models
- Thermodynamic dissipation under large deformation
- Mesoscale modeling of heterogeneous media as a tool for developing improved macroscale models
- Frame indifference and alternatives to objective rates in finite deformation
- Hypervelocity impact diagnostics for strength and equation of state (EOS) modeling
- Shock-induced vaporization of metals
- Accelerated installation and maintenance of material models in multiple codes
- Thermodynamics of shocks
- Reliability of simulations
- Alternatives to upwind differencing for advection-diffusion problems
- Use of X-ray computed tomography (XCT) in validation.